Game 50 - Jays game 10

As usual, all stats come from the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Well, Clement did nothing to gain my confidence yesterday, Theo, release the boy because you sure can’t trade him. For those of you with an iron stomach you can read all about it here.

Today its Chacin vs Beckett and that should be a quality game. Chacin has made one start in his career at home against the Sox and his pitching line was 6 – 7 – 1 – 0 – 0 – 2 – 2 which makes it a 0.00 ERA at home against the Sox. Overall in four games he is 2 and 0 with a 5.49 ERA in 19 2/3 innings.

All of Beckett’s starts against the Jays are this year. He has made one start at Toronto (the extra inning fiasco remember) with a pitching line of 7 1/3 – 5 – 5 – 5 – 3 – 2 – 3 for a 6.14 ERA. In three games he is 1 and 0 with a 4.66 era over 19 1/3 innings.

From what I can tell Beckett is 5 and 0 after a loss this year with 3 ND. Unfortunately all of those ended up being losses. Still, after eight losses he has given the team a chance to win in all of those losses and I will take that any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

I fully expect Beckett to pitch a whale of a game, of course Chacin being a leftie, I expect him to pitch good also. I expect a tight game tonight, with the boys hanging on at the end to go back up 3 1/2 games.

ESPN.com preview here.
MLB.com preview here.
Press Release found here.

Si's Power Rankings

Mentioned that I had taken a look at ESPN's power ranking the other day, and was confused by both the Tigers and Sox having lower rankings than the teams that are currently in second place in their divisions. This ranking is definitely more to my liking and makes better arguments (I think) . Enjoy!!!

Game 49 - Toronto game 9

As always all stats are from the Day by Day database at Baseball Musings.

Roy Halladay vs Matt Clement tonight. Halladay is 6 and 1 this year with a 2.77 ERA in 9 games. His last win was the 23rd against Tampa Bay, pitching 8 2/3 innings and allowing only 1 Earned Run. In his career at home against the Sox (as a starter), Halladay is 5 and 2 with a 3.42 ERA in 11 starts. He has also appeared in 3 games as a reliever at home pitching 5 1/3 innings with an 18.56 ERA. Total stats home and away has Halladay appearing in 25 games, 1 complete game, 8 wins, 6 losses, 119 K's, 41 Walks and a 4.49 ERA.

Clement (who I think I will call DHL for deer in head lights) has made 3 starts against the Blue Jays in Toronto (all with the Sox). His record in those games are 1 and 1 (the win this year) with a 5.71 ERA in those 3 games. His shortest outing was the win this year when he went 5 1/3 innings allowing 2 earned runs. In 7 games total against the Jays he is 2 and 3 (both wins this year) with a 7.34 ERA.

MLB.com preview is here.
ESPN.com preview is here.
Press Release found here.

I fully expect DHL to stink up the place. He is the most aggravating of all of the Boston starters. In 9 starts this year he has had 3 quality starts. The team record is 5 and 4 (only Wakefield has worst at 5 and 6), due to the fact that the bats pound out 5.90 runs per game. Well, with Halladay pitching I do not expect 5.9 runs tonight. I hate to say it but I fully expect this game to be a big L (making the Sox 3 and 6 vs the Jays this year).

Home Games

Well, thought I would post the scoring by innings of the Sox in their home games.

Games	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	extra
48 all	Boston	20	20	15	9	13	20	13	17	5	n/a
24 home	Opp	8	19	13	15	14	8	11	9	13	n/a

As you can see the Sox have scored the most in the 1st, 2nd, and 6th innings. The low number in the 9th represent the only 2 come from behind wins at Fenway this year (24 home games). Presently Sox are 16 and 8 at home, and 14 and 10 on the road.

Schillings 200 win and other stuff

Schilling pitches 7 strong innings followed by Foulke and Papelbon to win his 200th game, only the 4th to do it in a Sox uniform (last one Tiant). Was a quick game too, 2:46 and Schilling became the first 8 game winning al pitcher this year. Game Recap at ESPN.com can be found here. Have a chance to sweep tommorrow afternoon (well actually today).

Just took a look at the ESPN.com power rankings. What I don't understand is that the White Sox(1) and Yankees(5) are both rated above their division leaders. Ok, I can understand the Sox being one over the Tigers(2), but the Yankees above the Sox(6)?

Last time I looked the Sox have a winning record against the Yankees and lead them by two games and I don't buy that Wakefield is more and more looking like a non reliable starter. True he has an ERA over 4.5, but out of 10 starts he has pitched 6 quality starts. With better run support(3.9 pg) his record could easily be 6 and 3. The next lowest support for the team is Schilling (5.6). The team record in his starts is 4 and 6 which is the only one below 500. Wakefield has always been streaky and I expect his streak to start being W's starting today (13 - 2 against the Rays).

Game 46 - Devil Rays game 8

As always all stats are from the Day by Day database at Baseball Musings.

Wells is making his first start since his rehab start last weekend. I am not sure what to expect from him on this start since he only threw 66 pitches in 5 innings in that start. What we do know is that historically Wells is 10 and 1 ( 19 starts) with a 2.91 ERA in his career against the Devil Rays. At Fenway David is 2 and 0 in 2 starts with a 1.29 ERA (14 innings pitched).

I fully expect Wells to be limited to 75 or 80 pitches, the key is how efficient he will be with those pitches. This is his first start for the Sox since April 12 (a loss) against Toronto.

Kazmir has been a major pain to the Sox these last 2 years ( first start against Boston 9/14/2004). He has started 5 games at Fenway with a 3 and 1 record and a 2.54 ERA over 28 1/3 innings. I just noticed that he has went w - l - w - nd - w in those games (loss is due baby). In his three wins he has given up 1 earned run over 17 2/3 innings. This year he is 2 and 0 against the Sox (both of his wins came in quality starts by Schilling and Wakefield 2 of the 3 losses that have occurred in 23 quality starts this year.

What I expect is a close game that may come down to the bullpens. Lets hope that we are the winners in that.

ESPN.com preview here.
MLB.com preview here.

Press Release here.

(had a much longer post originally but blogger lost it grrrr)

Game 45 - Devil Rays Game 7

Beckett goes to the mound in game 1 of a 4 game series tonight. Out worthy opponent will by Waechter. Beckett is 6 and 1 while Waechter is 0 and 2. Beckett has never faced the Devil Rays in his career (baseball musing as usuall for the stats).

From MLB.com
Scouting Report:
Beckett was masterful with his fastball in his last start, leading the Red Sox to a win over the Phillies. He struck out just four, but kept Philadelphia hitters at bay until an eighth inning three-run home run by Ryan Howard. Finishing the seventh inning is nothing new for him; he's done it in seven of his nine starts. Beckett has not faced the Devil Rays in either of the two series between the teams this year.

Waechter has faced the Sox twice at Fenway (both last year), his pitching line in those games are 2 gs, 2 losses, 9 innings pitched, 13 hits, 13 runs, 11 earned runs, 3 hrs, 4 BB, 5 K's and an 11.00 ERA. To say the least he has not been impressive at Fenway except in his one relief appearance where he went 3 innings without any runs.

For all games (6 starts, 1 relief) he has pitched 30 innings, gone 1 and 2 with an ERA of 6.27. Obviously, he pitches better at home.

From MLB.com
Scouting Report:
Waechter made his first start out of the bullpen on Saturday after missing a turn in the rotation because of an off-day. He allowed three runs over six innings on six Marlins hits, walking three and striking out two. It was a big improvement from his last outing, in which he allowed seven runs on 11 hits over seven innings in his longest outing of the year. Waechter lasted just 2 2/3 innings at Boston April 19, surrendering seven runs (six earned) on five hits and three walks for his first loss of the season. He is 1-2 all-time with a 6.27 career ERA against Boston.

Some pretty good stuff in the press pass but am pressed for time you can read it yourself here.

ESPN.com's preview is here.

My thoughts, I look for the Sox to come out in overdrive tonight against this young right hander and I expect lots of scoring (save some for the other games boys). Beckett will continue to pitch well against this young team. Looking for his 7th win to be recorded tonight.

Don't remember where I saw it today but Maddon said he might not do the 34 defense tonight. We will have to wait and see.

Game 44 - Yankees game 7

From Baseball Musings we are able to see that Randy Johnson is 2 and 0 at Fenway with a 5.23 ERA in 3 starts. Only one of these has been a quality start and that was the Sunday game last October that clinched the playoffs for the Yankees (yes, I did not say the division because before the Wild Card there would have been a playoff). Interestingly, he has given up 7 home runs in just under 21 innings during those games. Overall, with Seattle and the Yankees he has started 12 games at Fenway with a 6 and 2 record and a 4.32 ERA.
From MLB.com Scouting report: Johnson tries yet again to straighten himself out, having struggled in each of his past five starts and six of his last seven. Johnson was hit hard by the Red Sox on May 9, giving up seven runs in 3 2/3 innings, though only two of the runs were earned. The Big Unit has walked 15 batters in his last five starts, striking out 18.

Clement has started one game against the Yankees at Fenway and lost big. He pitched 2 2/3 innings giving up 6 earned runs on 5 hits and 5 walks. One of the hits was a home run and he had 4 k's in that game. Overall against the Yankees he is 1 and 1 with a 5.54 ERA in 3 starts, all with the Red Sox.
From MLB.com Scouting report: Clement has been the model of inconsistency, alternating wins and losses for his last five starts. The common theme in his good starts has been late struggles. Twice he has thrown six scoreless innings, but has ended up allowing a total of seven runs in those two games. In his last start, he held the Phillies to one run on three hits through six, but gave up two more runs before departing in the seventh. Clement has not faced the Yankees this season and is 1-1 with a 5.54 ERA in three lifetime starts against New York.

So, now that I have thrown out these facts and figures what do I think will happen? Well, I expect it to be a slugfest. Johnson is struggling and struggling pitchers do not usually do well against patient teams, but if the Sox let him off the hook then there could definitely be problems.

Clement has been up and down this year (see previous posts on his games for my thoughts on Clement) and he could be up but, I think the Yankees are the type of team that causes him to struggle, they are patient, they make you throw strikes and they do not mind taking walks. When people get on base against Clement, he really slows down the game and that puts the defense on their heels. Now, of course since I just said I expect him to meet or exceed his 20.25 era against the Yankees at Fenway watch him go out and pitch a 1 hitter (yeah right).

From the press release - this is the best start for the Sox since 2003. Boston is also 4 - 2 in games decided by 2 runs this year. Opposing lefties are 1 and 2 with a 5.94 ERA in their last 4 outings against Boston, with the Sox going 3 - 1 in those contests....Lefties were 4 - 0 with a 1.45 ERA in the previous 5 starts. For the season lefties are 7 and 5 with a 3.17 ERA in 14 outings.

ESPN.com preview here.

Game 43 - Yankees game 6

Wakefield vs Wright in game 2 of this 3 game series. Pulling data from Baseball Musings I see that Timmy has started 13 games for the BoSox at Fenway against the Yankees with 4 wins and 7 losses and a 5.18 ERA in those starts. Since 2003 Wake is 2 and 4 at home in these games. 6 of his 13 starts have been quality starts with a 2 and 0 record in those games.

Overall Wake has appeared in 41 games vs the Yankees and has a 9 and 12 record with 1 save. The ERA for these games is 4.47 during that time.

From MLB.com

Wakefield suffered a loss in his last start, giving up eight hits and four runs over seven innings. He is 1-0 with a 4.15 ERA in two starts against the Yankees this season. Wakefield is 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA in his first four starts of May. He was the winning pitcher in a 5-3 win over the Yankees on May 11, and is 2-4 with a 4.19 ERA in eight starts in the series the last two seasons.

Jaret Wright has started 2 games at Boston as a Yankee with a 1 and 1 record and a 5.40 ERA. Adittionally he has started 3 other games as an Indian with no decisions in those games. His overall ERA at Fenway is 5.92 in those starts. 1 start was a quality start with the a no decision in that start. Besides the 5 games he has started at Fenway he has also started 4 other games vs the Sox as an Indian (3 games) and a Brave. His overall record is 1 and 4 with a 7.30 ERA in these 9 games.

From MLB.com

Wright looks to follow up a solid outing against the Rangers, in which he threw six scoreless innings before allowing three runs in the seventh. Wright went 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA in two starts against the Red Sox last season, and he is 2-1 with a 6.23 ERA against Boston in his career

ESPN.com preview here.

From ESPN.com

Tim Wakefield (3-5, 4.17) will face the Yankees for the third time this season. He did not get a decision in Boston's 7-3 win here but improved to 9-12 lifetime against New York by pitching six strong innings May 11 at Yankee Stadium.

Some interesting information was found at the press release for the Red Sox on David Ortiz.

102 Rbi in 100 games
David Ortiz drove in 3 runs on Monday tying Chicago’s Jim Thome for the American League lead with 41 RBI. It also gave Ortiz 102 RBI in his last 100 games beginning July 31, 2005, the most of any major league player in that span. Ortiz also tops the majors with 37 homers in this period:

Player	Games	HR	RBI
David Ortiz	100	37	102
Albert Pujols	101	35	87
Ryan Howard	94	30	77
Alex Rodriguez	103	30	81
Troy Glaus	95	29	70
Travis Hafner	96	28	84
Andruw Jones*	101	28	91
Paul Konerko	102	28	73

*Matt Holliday is tied with Jones for 2nd with 91 RBI in that span.

Game 42 - Yankees game 5

UPDATE: Put another win in the column. Schilling goes 8 innings on less than 100 pitches and the Sox got to Wang in the 3rd for 4 runs to start the offense rolling. The only excitement came in the ninth when Foulke got hammered for 4 runs before getting the final out. Makes the Sox 4 and 1 against the Yanks this year.

ESPN.com box score here.

Game 1 of a 3 game series at Fenway starts tonight. This is the 5th game of 19 games versus the Yankees this year. Since 2003 the Red Sox have a 32-29 record (regular season), Boston Starters are 9 and 10 in thirty games at Fenway during that period with a 5.46 ERA, and the overall record is 17 and 13 with a team ERA of 4.70.

Schilling has started 5 games with the Red Sox against the Yankees with a 4 and 2 record overall (3 and 1 at home) with a 4.75 ERA at Fenway (4.98 all starts). Including 2 relief appearances with the Sox Schilling is 4 and 3 with a 5.16 ERA. Schilling has 4 quality starts against the Yankees (3 at home) and is 4 and 0 in all of those games.

This year so far Schilling is 3 and 0 at Fenway with a 2.14 ERA (espn.com). He has not made any starts against the Yankees at Fenway but is 0 and 1 after his last start against the Yankees this year. This is the only loss the Sox have against the Yankees.

FROM MLB.com

Though he won his last start, Schilling has been in a slump of late. After giving up four homers over his first seven outings, he has given up six longballs in his last two starts. This is Schilling's second start of the season against the Yankees. In the first one, he was the losing pitcher, giving up eight hits and six runs over five innings. Schilling has been dominant at Fenway this season, going 3-0 with a 2.14 ERA in three starts.

Wang has 2 starts at Boston, one this year and one last year. His overall record is 0 and 1 with a 4.41 ERA, at Fenway he is 0 and 1 with a 4.63 ERA. Ironically his loss came in his only quality start against the Sox last year.

FROM MLB.com
Wang has been terrific in his last two outings, allowing just three runs (two earned) in 16 innings against Oakland and Texas. The right-hander has had his sinker and slider working, inducing an incredible number of groundball outs for New York. A winner of three straight starts, Wang will be looking to improve on his five-inning, three-run outing against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on May 1.

ESPN.com preview here.
All stats created with help from the day by day database Baseball Musings.

game 41 recap

A quality start by the Phillies and a non quality start by Dinardo, result a 10 - 5 shellacking. Lenny showed the rust of sitting for 2 weeks, his pitches kept climbing and the Phillies kept smacking him around.

The only good thing to happen yesterday was that the Mets actually held on to beat the Yankees. Start of a three game series tonight against the Yanks.

ESPN.Com game 41 boxsore here.

game 41 - Phillies game 3

Dinardo goes to the mound today, from Baseball Musings we see that he has pitched only once in his career against the Phillies and that was in a relief appearance 2 years ago. He pitched less than 2 innings with an era of 10.80. His starts for the Red Sox have actually been pretty decent and he is coming off of his first Major League win. Tito has benched Ortiz today to put out his best infield since Lenny is a ground ball pitcher.

Lidle has never pitched against the Sox as a Philly but has made 6 starts and 5 relief appearances with the Mets, Tampa, Oakland and Toronto. He is 1 and 2 with a lifetime era of 6.75. With these numbers I am not expecting a 1 - 0 game today.

MLB.com preview is here.

Game 40 Recap

Both pitchers threw quality starts (out of a possible 80, 34 have been quality starts). Hero of the day has to be Beckett though, as he went 7 innings, knocked in 2 runs (single and homer). For awhile I thought we would be faced with a Wakefield type game as the Phils, kept the boys from mounting any threats, then along came the sixth and the error by the SS. 4 runs later I was sitting there thinking this is all sewed up except for that nagging feeling that we could get a replay of this game (warning not safe for Yankee haters).

All in all a good quality win and another series taken (I make it 8 - 4 - 1 in series) and a successful road trip. I am really liking what I see in the defense of this team, the pitchers seem to be really comfortable and they know if the get ground balls, the defense will make the play. The only sour note in this game was the error by Snow (please make him happy and trade him).

Next game is Dinardo, lets see how that goes.

ESPN recap here.

Game 40 - Phillies game 2

Beckett goes to the mound tonight after 2 strong starts in which he hasn't walked anyone. Myers is also pitching well, so tonight could come down to the team that scores first wins.

Papi should be playing first again (got to have the bat), but expect Youk to switch over late in the game if they have a lead, Lowell to take over at third.

ESPN.com preview here.
MLB.com preview here.

From the press pass the team has made the fewest errors ever in their first 39 games since 1960.

From the day by day database at Baseball Musings Beckett is 1 and 2 at Philly with a 4.18 ERA in 6 games started. 3 of the games he made it past the sixth inning and 2 of the games he was out after 2 innings. Lets hope we get the sixth inning pitcher tonight.

Away games

Well, thought I would post the scoring by innings of the Sox in their away games.

Games	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	extra
56 all	Boston	13	16	15	23	20	27	13	24	20	0
32 away	Opp	30	19	21	29	20	14	18	20	1	1

As you can see Boston has allowed more runs in the first inning than any other inning during their away games. This has been most troubling about Becketts starts.

Updated: 6/7/2006

Game 39 recap

Clement pitches well, his 3rd quality start and the Sox rewarded him by scoring all of their runs on homers. This year the Sox are 3 and 0 in Clement's quality starts. Overall in 20 quality starts the team has won 17 of those games (Wakefield and Schilling have the losses) . When the opposing team has a quality start the Sox are 4 and 8.

Think about that, in 39 games there have been 32 quality starts by both teams with the Sox winning 21 of those. Today its Beckett vs Myers. go sox.

ESPN.com recap here.

Game 39 - Phillies game 1

Tonight starts a 3 game set in Philly, who have lost 3 straight on the road against the Brewers. We have Clement (teeth grinding already) against Leiber. I have no idea how Clement will pitch, but maybe since its a NL team he'll actually pitch well. We will see.

ESPN.Com preview here.
MLB.Com preview here.

Last year on the road Clement was 5 and 2 with a 4.20 era in 15 games (was 8 and 4 with a 4.90 era in 17 games at Fenway). His only game last year at Philly he went 7 innings with 7 hits, 1 earned run and 4 K's. He received the win for that effort.

For his career Clemnent has pitched in 7 games at Philly, with a 3.48 era and a 4 and 1 record in 41.1 innings. 5 of the 7 games were quality starts.

This year he's 2 and 1 with a 4.91 era in 3 games on the road ( 1 and 2 with a 6.14 era in 4 games at Fenway).

For his career as a Philly, Lieber has a 10 and 8 record in 21 games at home with a 4.77 era. This year he is 1 and 3 with a 6.03 era at home.

As a Philly Jon has pitched one game at the Sox (at phil). That outing was a 5 inning effort with 6 earned runs and was his only loss to the Sox. As a Yankee he had 2 starts (1 win) with both starts being quality starts. Combined his record is 1 and 1 against Boston with a 5.12 era. All of his starts against the Sox have been in his home park. Game time is 7:05 at CBP. Be there or be square.

All stats gathered from Baseball Musings day by day database.

Wake loses another close one

Well the offense stunk thanks to a good outing by Bedard. The key to this game was men on 2nd and 3rd no outs and you only get one run in thanks to back to back strike outs to Manny and Lowell in the first inning. At that point, you felt that Bedard being let off of the hook was going to throw a very good game and then watched him just mow down everybody for the rest of the game.

Meanwhile, the stRangerslers lost another game to the Yankees and here we are all tied up in the standings. No game today, but Clement (ouch) starts a three game series against the Phillies on Friday.

game 38 - Orioles game 9 of 18

Tonights game is the half way point of the season series with the O's, Wakefield takes the mound against Bedard. From the Red Sox Press Pass the following are Timmy's record against the O's:

► 2006 vs. BAL: 2-0, 2.25 ERA (3 ER/12.0 IP), 2 GS
► CAREER vs. BAL: 13-11, 4 saves, 3.98 ERA (86 ER/194.1 IP), 39 G, 26 GS
► CAREER at BAL: 7-3, 2 saves, 2.90 ERA (29 ER/90.0 IP), 19 G, 12 GS

► Is 7-3 with a pair of saves and a 2.90 ERA (29 ER/90.0 IP) in 19 games (12 starts) at Baltimore…in 90.0 innings, has allowed 35 runs (29 earned) on 74
hits…has walked 36 and punched out 61.

All signs point to a good outing by Wake.

ESPN.com preview here.
MLB.com preview here.

Is Curt Schilling the New Pedro??

So Curt starts out strong last night giving up only the 1 run in the first 3 innings then comes the 4th where he is torched for 2 two run homers. The second home run in that inning came on his 104th pitch. He started the inning with 76 pitches. So the question, is this his limit, 90 pitches and you better start getting some one up and ready to go in the game?

Was good to see Loretta continue to swing the bat well and even better to see Papi knock in that key run.